The tiki jam was Fantastic. Everyone there had a blast, and the tikis were Awesome. Loki and Stumpgrinder sure know how to throw a party, I wish there were another one every weekend.
There will be Many fun pictures to follow in the Tiki Jam thread I'm sure.
Thanks Loki and Stumpgrinder.
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StumpGrinder and I both needed some time away from tiki to refresh our creative sides. We were thinking so much about what the next tiki project would be that we kept coming up blank. We decided instead to carve wood spirits. I know, they are not tiki, but it did get the creative juices flowing and they were FUN to carve. We both enjoyed it immensely. It also allowed us to work in more detail with the hook knife, and recip carver.

My wood spirit is about 8.5 inches made of Florida mahogany. I used flexcut gouges and V's in a palm chisel handle and a hook knife blade. Spent about 6 hours total and i'm really happy with how he turned out. Again, its not tiki, but it really put a smile on my face to carve him. The focus was on detail and facial features using small tools.

StumpGrinder made a walking stick out of a yet to be identified wood from a felled Wilma tree. We saved them from back in October and are finally getting around to using them. She used the recip carver and the hook knife.

Here is my guy all stained and ready to try out for the next Lord of the Rings movie...i didnt have the heart to tell him they were all finished filming years ago.

Stumpgrinder finished the tongue tiki. It really looks great and these pics just dont show how nice it is. The ficus wood has some nice spalding which gives it a deep and textured look. Again, we have been impressed at how nice ficus carves. It has very minimal checking and finished great.

I have finally gotten around to a project I've wanted to tackle for a long time. I'll just let you all watch what it turns out to be. Only one of you knows I'm doing it and I hope I do it justice to the designer. Any guesses?

Again, thanks for taking your time and visiting. Sorry about the non tiki, but sometimes you just have to work outside the box. Aloha for now.

Don't go to the Dark Side - if that chunk of wood starts to look like a garden knome, me and some tikis are going to come over there and knock some sense back into the two of you. The wood spirits actually look great and it is nice to mix things up a bit.

Way to go guyz, I Love the wood spirit and just the thing to get the spirit motivated again. Stumpgrinder, your tongue tiki really turned out great, though it took long enough to do twice. (I know, you learned twice as much!)
Loki, it looks to me like you are gonna carve yourself a Lono, right? I Win?? What else could it be?
Stumpgrinder, your dad still coming in this or next week?
Guys, thanks again for another Awesome Tiki Jam. kearn from the MaiKai wants to be kept informed for the next one. He Will be There.
When is the next one? Next week? Do I Win Again??? Yipee
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The mystery project (nobody has guessd it yet) is on hold...... again. I did a nice butcher job on it so it will be turned into something else. I did figured out what i did wrong, so i'll be attacking another log soon to get it right. Hang tight on the never ending mystery tiki...

In other news, I had a wedge slice of mahogany left over from a chainsaw cut and decided to make a Tabletop Tang much like the as yet completed Race Tang (soon). It is about 16" tall and very early into the carving. The wood has some great spalding in it and should make for an interesting finish. The wood is getting very hard and when I cut anything it looks like glass. I used the band saw to cut the outline and am using the Foredom #50 Recip,straignt chisels and the hook knife.

StumpGrinder is designing a new tiki and is about to start hacking into it. Stand by, and as usual, thanks for looking.

_________________"He who does anything because it is the custom makes no choice."

For all you still guessing on the mystery tiki...it is not this table top tang...I'm glad I butchered the first one because the wood started checking and would have ruined it even if i got it right. I'm still going to carve the mystery tiki as soon as i find the right piece of wood for the job.

As for this little table top tang...hopefully i will have him finished this weekend. We are currently gutting our guest bathroom, so my carving time is non existant at the moment. My father in law is coming for a two week visit and he is a very talented carver himself. He's never done a tiki, but I know that will change this week. I'll force a log on him and let him do his magic.

The bathroom renovation is finally complete and the carving has begun again. My father in law has been visiting from Cleveland and has been in charge of the renovation. We dragged him to the Jet Setter Lounge on Memorial Weekend where we all enjoyed the wonderful sounds of the Haole Kats and drank tiki drinks. He is already a talented carver but has never ventured into tiki. That changed this weekend. BenzArt was gracious enough to drop by and we all sat around and carved and swapped stories. I have started a moai wall mask for a good friend of mine, but i forgot to take pics of it. I'll post them later.

My FIL started working on a tiki pendant for me using the hook knife. Benz gave him some quick lessons and he hasnt looked back yet.

Nothing like hands on training from Benz

Sorry about the crappy pics, i'll take some better ones when he's finished. I cant believe the detail that he can make on the mouth. The thing has a full set of teeth and its only 2 inches. It runs in the family. Stump Grinder is a chip off the ole' block. Me, I have to work really hard for it. Oh well. More pics coming soon.

_________________"He who does anything because it is the custom makes no choice."